This invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to vertical thermoelectric structures in integrated circuits.
Thermoelectric devices may function in several modes, for example, a generator mode, a cooler mode, a heater mode, or a temperature sensor mode. Thermoelectric devices may be included in an integrated circuit (IC), most commonly to provide electrical power for a circuit in the IC, to cool a component in the IC, or to sense the temperature of a region in the IC. Integrating a thermoelectric device into an IC may be accomplished by adding process steps to the fabrication process sequence for the IC to form the thermoelectric device elements, resulting in undesirable increased manufacturing costs, or by using the existing IC process flow sequence to form the thermoelectric device elements, which typically results in less than optimum performance of the thermoelectric device.